Mission
The mission of Connecticut Fund for the Environment and its program, Save the Sound, is to protect and improve the land, air and water of Connecticut and Long Island Sound. We use legal and scientific expertise and bring people together to achieve results that benefit our environment for current and future generations.
Background
CFE is the leading advocate for the environment in Connecticut, using education, coalition-building, advocacy and litigation. CFE programs directly affect the seven million estimated current residents and visitors to the State of Connecticut, Long Island Sound and coastal New York. Founded in 1978 by Fred Krupp, current head of Environmental Defense, CFE merged in 2004 with Save the Sound, a respected voice for the protection of Long Island Sound’s shoreline and marine habitats. Save the Sound is now a distinct program within CFE. The merger enhanced both programs, bringing together Save the Sound’s proven stewardship, restoration, and community outreach capability with CFE’s legal, scientific and policy expertise. Our strategies include advocacy, litigation, stewardship and habitat restoration, based on careful research and analysis. Our work is carried out with thousands of partners and stakeholders, including elected officials, community leaders and citizen volunteers. CFE has a dedicated staff of 20, plus four student interns. Key to our success is building and mobilizing coalitions. Along with our more than 9,900 citizen e-activists; 5,550 members region-wide; and 2,500 volunteers; we also partner with other environmental organizations, community groups, businesses and other non-profits. Currently, our unique and powerful partnerships include Transit for Connecticut, Growing Connecticut Around Transit, the Clean Water Investment Coalition and the Climate and Energy Solutions Action coalition. In addition to advocacy, CFE is mentoring a new generation of environmental leaders. Our attorneys teach a seminar on public interest advocacy techniques and skills and we also apprentice law students through the Environmental Law Clinic that we founded in 2004 as part of the University of Connecticut’s School of Law. CFE also awards one fellowship a year to a graduate student in law or science. This year we are actively working to: protect endangered lands; clean up and restore Long Island Sound; expand energy efficiency and clean energy programs in Connecticut; ensure more livable communities through increased transit, transit-oriented development and green infrastructure; challenge toxic polluters of our rivers and the Sound; restore habitat, clean up beaches and river fronts; and advocate for increased funding to curb pollution from aging and insufficient stormwater / sewage management systems.
Impact
2013 was another successful year for CFE and its program Save the Sound. We helped secure $1 billion for Connecticut's Clean Water Fund to help towns pay for much-needed sewer system upgrades. We continued our efforts on several land conservation projects, including protecting the 1,000-acre forest known as The Preserve in Old Saybrook, Bethel water company lands that were at risk, as well as endangered lands in Litchfield County. We continued to expand our habitat restoration program, installing a new fishway with "fish cam" on the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport. This project will engage children and families as citizen scientists in monitoring fish passage and gathering data for use by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. We rallied 2,400+ volunteers to help clean more than 16,000 pounds of trash from 50 miles of beaches. We installed nine rain gardens to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff in the Town of Southington. We launched our western Long Island Sound program, initiating a water-quality monitoring program in Mamaroneck, which led to the discovery and remedy of two major contamination sites. We worked with state lawmakers to improve Connecticut's Comprehensive Energy Strategy and protect the Renewable Portfolio Standard. We continued to advocate for the New Britain-Hartford busway (CTfastrak) anticipated to be completed in 2015, which will help ensure cleaner air and smarter urban development patterns.
Goals for the current year include hiring an executive director for our Stamford 2030 project and working to meet the criteria for the Stamford 2030 District, a collaborative program to engage building owners in pursuing district-wide energy, water and transportation emissions reduction goals in that city. We anticipate celebrating our Pequonnock River restoration at Beardsley Zoo, and engaging the public in installing native plants as part of the restoration effort. We will begin work to remove Pond Lily Dam on New Haven's West River which, with our earlier West River project, will open 10 river miles to migratory fish passage. We also expect to host a planting event and undertake the next phase of restoration at Sunken Meadow State Park--a high-profile project that has extended our restoration reputation across the Sound. We expect to begin removing a hazardous dam in Mystic, CT to improve safety of the downstream community and enable migratory fish passage. We anticipate opening a new Save the Sound Mamaroneck office to better protect Long Island Sound and extend our efforts to reduce hypoxia and beach closings in the western Sound. For more than a decade, CFE has worked with multiple allies toward an agreement to allow a conservation purchase of the 1,000-acre property known as The Preserve. That agreement was reached last year. We will conduct outreach and communications events to advocate for raising the $10-12 million required for the conservation purchase of the property. We will continue working with multiple allies to protect Plum Island (an 840-acre jewel of mostly undisturbed habitat for threatened wildlife species and native plants just off Connecticut's shore that is at risk for public sale and development) and toward that end will focus on strengthening the Preserve Plum Island Coalition and laying the ground work for a possible public acquisition of the island by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. We expect to coordinate 40+ Connecticut coastal cleanup events as Connecticut coordinator for the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). As part of our Green Infrastructure program, we will work to develop a 100% engineered design to inform the creation of a suite of low impact development best management practices to reduce stormwater runoff from two acres of impervious walkways, plazas and roofs at Bridgeport's Housatonic Community College into Long Island Sound.
Needs
General operating and program support.
Matching funds, which are required for us to obtain government grants for government grants.
Donations to support our work to clean up Long Island Sound.
Gifts to our Strike Force Fund, which helps to fund emergency efforts, such as our current work to save Plum Island or our past successful effort to stop Broadwater, a massive 20-story natural gas plant that was proposed by Shell Oil for Long Island Sound.
Members and activists to support and participate in our program, legislative and advocacy efforts.
CEO Statement
Our organization is indebted to the efforts of citizens like you.
With your help, we've been able to stem multiple threats to our state's land, air and water. We've achieved tangible results through legal and legislative advocacy and through citizen engagement. These results include helping to win passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act, which put Connecticut among a handful of states (California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey) that have committed to concrete carbon reductions in a specific time frame. As of this year, we have completed 22 habitat restoration projects with a broad spectrum of partners, including Federal and state agencies, municipalities, other nonprofit groups and local volunteers. Our restoration statistics are impressive: 73 river miles opened up to fish passage, 432 acres of lake habitat improved, 322 acres of restored tidal marsh, and 25 acres of native vegetation installed. We permanently protected 15,000 acres of lands that purify our drinking water. And over the last ten years, more than 17,000 volunteers joined us to remove nearly 140,000 pounds of trash from 500+ miles of Connecticut beaches and riverfronts.
Practical solutions to safeguarding Connecticut's land, air and water require many levels of expertise. Our staff of lawyers, scientists and outreach experts does the tough work of finding solutions that work. We then bring those solutions to our state legislature, state agencies and the courts.
Our successes also require teamwork. We form alliances with citizens, scientists, advocates, community groups, engineers, unions, businesses and other diverse groups. For example, we know there's a long way to go if we want to clean up sewage overflows and restore the low oxygen "dead zone" in Long Island Sound. So we've joined forces with towns, engineers and the construction industry to convince the state to invest in the Clean Water Fund to finance major sewage projects designed to clean up our rivers and the Sound and to create jobs at the same time.
Most importantly, though, Connecticut would be a very different place without your contributions and support. We cannot clean up beaches, win legislative battles or restore a river without you. Your continued moral and financial support for our work to confront the threats to our land, water and air and to Long Island Sound make all the difference. Please join 9,900 of your fellow citizens who take the time to make a key phone call to an elected official, or the more than 2,500 volunteers a year who join a beach cleanup or habitat restoration planting. Thank you.
Board Chair Statement
For more than 40 years, CFE has been a respected and impressive force for protecting the land, air and water of Connecticut and Long Island Sound through innovative solutions, collaborative achievements, solid science, committed advocacy and, when necessary, strategic litigation. Environmental issues take many years to resolve. Someone has to push back to defend the wider interests of the community -- someone who is in the fight for the long haul. Thanks to your support, Connecticut Fund for the Environment and its program Save the Sound have fought and won on critical issues to protect public health and preserve our environment like:
• Blocking Broadwater -- a massive 20-story natural gas plant that would have dominated the skyscape of Long Island Sound for decades to come;
• Persuading the State of Connecticut to protect all 18,700 acres of the Kelda water company's lands and reservoirs in a $90 million purchase by the State and The Nature Conservancy; and
• Successfully advocating for Connecticut's adoption of the strictest tailpipe emission standards for cars, and a requirement that new cars offered for sale be labeled with their greenhouse gas emission values.
While we’ve waged these big battles, we’ve also made steady achievements like restoring dozens of river miles and acres of lake habitat, native vegetation and tidal marsh through our habitat restoration program, and removing nearly thousands of pounds of trash from Connecticut beaches in a decade of serving as Connecticut coordinator for the International Coastal Cleanup.
CFE/Save the Sound more than makes up for its relatively small size by having BIG impacts. We aren't afraid to tackle major environmental issues or large, well-funded corporate interests that disrespect environmental values. Your investment in this organization helps ensure that we are here to use our tremendous legal and scientific expertise year after year. Thank you for your support and your faith in our mission.